Orígenes de la enseñanza técnica en Alcoy (review)

Since the 1990s, we have had a renewed interest in the history of technical education and engineering schools in Spain. The commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the founding of industrial teaching there in 1850 has naturally promoted this kind of work. Several historians of technology have focused their research on the origins of such instruction in Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Vergara, Valencia, Gijón, Málaga, Cádiz, Béjar, and now Alcoy. Since the late eighteenth century, textile and paper industries had contributed to the prosperity of Alcoy, and in 1800 the Spanish monarchy granted the title of "Royal" to a factory there that manufactured textiles used by the Spanish army. In this book, Georgina Blanes Nadal, Lluís Garrigós, Carlos Millán, and Sebastià Alcaraz recount the history of the Elementary Industrial School of Alcoy.

The first chapter is devoted to Spanish educational policy during the convulsive nineteenth century. The authors analyze the extinction of the traditional teaching system of the guilds and the reforms that led to a new system of technical education. The second and shortest chapter examines the role played by the Royal Factory of Stuffs and Papers in the establishment of technical and professional instruction. Between 1828 and 1837, this factory financed a singular institution, the Establecimiento Científico-Artístico, to support studies of industrial training. The third chapter, which comprises the core of the book, deals with the Industrial School of Alcoy (1853-1901). It offers an analysis of the social and especially economic vicissitudes that the school suffered in attempting to ensure a more stable financial position. The authors divide the school's history into five periods and outline changes in the curriculum, the faculty, the student body, the finances, and the administration. A fourth and final chapter presents brief biographies of outstanding teachers, enumerates curricula, and describes the library resources and laboratory facilities.

This is a valuable work based on meticulous and exhaustive study of many different sources, particularly archival material. It represents a noteworthy achievement, and I want to congratulate the authors. Nevertheless, it is focused closely on this one industrial school, and historians of technology may regret the absence of a comparative perspective on other technical schools, a consideration of the regional influence of the Industrial School of Alcoy, and an assessment of its role in the general process of Spanish industrialization. Despite these shortcomings, however, I recommend this book to all historians interested in the establishment of technical education in the nineteenth century. It has filled a gap in the historiography of Spanish technology, provided a comprehensible view of one particular educational institution, and contributed to an understanding of Spanish industrialization.